I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to culinary utensils and, in particular, to a culinary utensil adapted to the advantageous cooking of food over a fire resulting in an evenly cooked, juicy piece of meat.
II. Description of the Prior Art
In barbecuing meat, foul, or other such fleshy foods there are several options as to the method of cooking the food. The most common one in use is that of piercing opposing ends of the desired piece of food with the pointed extremities of long rod-like skewers. These skewers, in turn, are mounted on a holder device whereupon the skewers remain at rest for the duration of the cooking time or, in most cases, where the skewers rotate upon actuation of an appropriate motor. The rotating skewers represent a major advance from the caveman days of suspending the meat on a rope or a stick over an open fire, since the rotating skewers prevent the meat from burning on the fire-facing side.
However, even with such progress as the attempted rotation of food, there still remain many unfavorable, unsavory, and frankly inefficient aspects of barbecue cookery. One such problem is keeping the meat together, particularly if the food choice is fowl. The usual scene is a chicken twirling around a rotisserie with legs and wings flapping in the breeze. U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,400 attempts to provide a solution to this problem of containing the food with a wire basket of sorts which confines the cooking object. Another problem encountered in cooking food on a spit is that, as the skewers rotate, they do not always positively rotate the food and, thus, results the ancient situation of the fire-facing side being burned to a crisp, while the opposite side remains raw and cold. Although the holding device of U.S. Pat. No. 1,741,400 somewhat relieves this undesirable occurrence, still an additional obstacle opposes the successful and succulent roasting of a piece of food. Loss of meat juice is a continual problem in any method of cooking, and in barbecuing it becomes particularly impossible. Devices to overcome loss of the drippings consist mostly of pans and containers placed underneath the cooking meat to catch the juice as it falls from the meat. Picture these delicious juices collecting in a pan only to be reduced to a powdery film by the heat of the coals; simultaneously, picture the remaining dried-out meat whirling above on the spit. The ineffectiveness of this type of solution is apparent.